News Asus ships Transformer hybrid tablet

Underpowered Hardware???!

 

Under £350 and I'm sold (pending a try in Comet/PC world/etc before purchase off the internets).

 

Does the "screen" part have ANY ports except for 3.5 jack and proprietory connection port? If these are the only ports - then to me it is a no-sale

 

Bindi: any idea when it will be released in Canada? Will pricing be similar to US pricing? Thanks!

 

When will it be available in Canada? Will Canadian pricing be similar to US?

 

Does anyone have an idea on the release date on europe other than the UK? I live in Portugal and I'm probably going to buy this instead of the iPad2.

 

It is an it isn't. It's still an Eee product aimed "at everyone" (ref: Eee is Me campaign I'm supposed to push ) but it's a different type of portability and user. Eee PCs are aimed at basic computing with Windows compatibility, whereas the Transformer is both Eee PC and tablet (for people who need a keyboard) with a different software set. For people who just want email, video/media, internet and Android games it's perfect. It has Polaris Office stuff but obviously Eee PCs or a proper notebook is better if you're tied into Microsoft. You can always use Google Docs I suppose..

The touchscreen, higher resolution display, metal facias around the keyboard and "high res" IPS panel and gorilla glass all costs more than the all plastic Eee PCs.

Weight dist of the tablet itself, unless you're particularly sensitive it's even. I mean without you asking I've just had to check. The right side is maybe ever so slightly heavier, but then again I am left handed...

Build quality is metal-glass with a hard plastic back. It doesn't bend or flex. The connector between the two parts is a little sensitive but as long as you don't treat it like a child's toy it should be fine. The design has gone through testing since last December afaik. The hinge is significantly stiffer than your normal laptop because much of the weight is in the "display", but it needs to be to support the docking function. The downside I suppose is that both together it's not particularly thin, but at least the edges are metal and both sides are textured so it's still quite nice to look at and hold.

UK stockists - not sure exactly that's for the UK team to answer, but I would expect all the usual places that stock Eee stuff. We're launching in the UK and US first due to production ramp-up and logistics (again afaik, I'm marketing not PM), with other countries as fast as we can! I would expect Europe in general to be high on the agenda because it's a very important market to ASUS - we've actually just had the European teams in HQ learning about the tablet this week, so they are expecting shortly.

I'll shoot a video today on the overlay, honeycomb and features. ASUS has gone down the HTC route and added it's own widgets, which can be removed if you like, but they are aimed to "soften" the very digital style of Honeycomb to appeal to the Eee market better.

There is a SDHC on and two USB ports on the keyboard dock because the dock has more internal space as it's mostly just a second battery + keyboard. The tablet itself has a mini-HDMI port, micro-SD slot, 3.5mm audio jack and the Apple-like docking/charge connector. The idea is that you use a mouse and USB flash drive when it's on a desk, but having a flash drive poke out the side of a tablet is not user friendly, hence microSD.

TheUn4seen - It would be impossible to get any x86 hardware in a tablet this size without the battery life being less than an hour I would say. Bobcat is a great, low power APU from AMD for what it offers, but it's at best 9W for just the CPU - systems can triple that. The best Intel mobile CPU is about 1.3-2W (Z600) and uses a sub-1GHz single core. Tegra 2 afaik is, at most, 1W. It'll decode 1080p at 100mW too. ARM hardware costs less as well - if you want a 399 tablet there's no way it's going to be x86 because the BOM cost for supporting hardware like power, PCB complexity and components. Check the Intel price list too; the cheapest mobile Atom is $60+ (that's not even specialist mobile ones). Tegra 2 is supposed to be a third of that (that's not me officially stating it, just what I've read elsewhere).

 

Here is my big question: Will the price tag include the keyboard docking station or is that a seperate purchase on top of the tablet?

I ask because I have looked at getting a keyboard for my mom's iPad and those things run $99+, for the nice ones at least. If the price tag includes the keyboard it might sell better than iPads for those who NEED a keyboard.

Also, can the keyboard and tablet lock/snap together into one piece for carrying purposes or is it two seperate bits you have to lug about?

 

Thanks for that post man! Really helpful!
Is there any word on the european launch date? (namely Portugal, but that's just my case).

 

It snaps and locks together as one piece and you can hold it by either display or keyboard. A little button on the inner rim pops them apart. It's not so smooth, but it's definitely secure!

The best part is that when running you can dock/undock on a whim and the OS acts like nothing's happened

Shark00n - I can't say EU launch dates until the Eee Pad team announces. I know that's frustrating but they would rather tell you a real date rather than one that might change before shipping/distribution/local teams have confirmed it's all ready.

EDIT: Let me add this:

 

Thanks Bindi!

Guys, what have you got to say about this particular video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQGNPH3g0uk

It's from early March, or so I'm told.

The interface looks sketchy and not fluid at all, the touch feature looks buggy and unresponsive... Is it because it was still a "prototype" or something of the sort? Or does the real product really work like that?
If so, that's a big no-no for me... But I'm still going to wait for at least some reviews before I make a rush and buy an ipad...

 

I personally would very much prefer having a USB port on the tablet itself, so I can read/write USB flash drives or attach other devices.

 

thanks for info bindi!

 

Fair enough, but there's other software built in that'll sniff local networks and ASUS includes its own Webstorage that can store docs. Not to mention the free Dropbox app for Android too

Shark00n - Google actually only released the final-final version of Android 3 very recently (we've been waiting on it), not to mention Flash 10.2 as well (afaik). Credit for Motorola for being first, but the Xoom for example technically launched with beta software. HTC is also launching its 7" Flyer with Android 2.x too. I won't lie though; even the shipping version is still *slightly* buggy if you try to do too much at once, but it's still completely usable and Google's first tablet OS so there's bound to be updates along the way

 

BTW, is having HDMI cable sticking out from the tablet more user-friendly than a USB drive? I think when someone needs to connect external display chances of him walking around with HDMI cable are rather slim. IMHO in that case the tablet is going to be laying stationary on a table, so why not on a docking station? Having HDMI on docking station rather than on the tablet makes more sense

ASUS, if you are reading this - please,please, please replace the HDMI with USB on the tablet - and I'm sold

 

I'm very intrigued by this product. How well would it replace a Win7 netbook I wonder? Does it have something akin to MS Publisher? Does it have good e-book software? How long does it take to boot/shutdown/restart? I assume there will be software updates?

 

It has Polaris Office, and it can remote desktop to any Windows or Mac machine so you can type while you type.. an email.

Boot from cold is about 30 secs. From standby is instant like your phone. eBook software built in is ASUS' MyLibrary that reads ePub and PDF (afaik), but that doesn't mean you can't install others from the Android market.

Software updates.. I bloody hope so! It's certainly not as heavily customized as HTC's 'wares so should be more efficient. Unknown area though from even my perspective, but they have managed to turn around the MyNet, MyLibrary and MyCloud stuff pretty quickly. I'll ask the PMs.

 

Hmmm, I just meant, as there's plenty of people around using an EEE netbook for what the iPad gets used for (but for less money), these people might be interested, thus it would compete with other netbooks.

With the toughened glass, 1280x800 resolution and GPS onboard though, it plays in a different leage, and should cost accordingly.
Considering it's just 16/32GB storage, I suppose it's got an SSD...up goes the price again.

 

Thanks Bindi! Helpful as always!

I get what you mean, in this video (nevermind it's in swedish or something like that) it's much more polished and fluid than the previous vid. I can live with that the way it is, and if it's got room only to improve, even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ms-oD11NCI

Hows does it hold up battery-wise? I've read it manages 10 hours and I read it managed 8 hours, which is it really? Have you got any experience with this? (I'm not looking for a unrealistic battery time plan, I want to know the battery time during real world use, internet, email, games, music, movies, a little of everything, thanks!)

 

Wait for reviews tbh if you want a trusting, real-world answer Quoted as 9.5hrs with the tablet on its own and 16hrs when docked.